Earlier this month the New York Times endorsed the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights that would to extend basic labor rights to domestic workers: the nannies, cooks, housekeepers and other caregivers who have long been excluded from many of the fundamental protections most other workers receive under federal labor law.

Now Actress Amy Poehler (SNL, Parks and Recreation) has taken the bill’s message and filmed a PSA in support of the passage of the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights.

“Many people ask me how I balance it all and the truth is it wouldn’t be possible for me to do all those things without the help I get in my home every day,” Poehler says in the video. “Every day, so many working women get to do what they do because there are wonderful people in their home, helping them. These workers, who inspire and influence our children, who take care of our loved ones and our homes, have been excluded from basic labor protections for generations. Please help us right that wrong and pass the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights this year. It’s time these workers were treated with dignity and respect.”

Poehler’s video is part of her collaboration with the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the Ai-jen Poo led group behind the bill (also known as AB 889) that is currently being considered by the Governor.

Poehler’s speech at the TIME 100 Gala. At the 1:30 mark she begins to thank her nannies.

I have thought very hard and long about what has influenced me over the past couple of years, and since I have been at this dinner in 2008, I have given birth to two boys and I’ve left Saturday Night Live and I started my own TV show, and it’s been a crazy couple of years, and I thought who besides Madam Secretary Clinton and Lorne Michaels have influenced me? And it was the women who helped me take care of my children. It is Jackie Johnson from Trinidad and it is Dawa Chodon from Tibet, who come to my house and help me raise my children. And for you working women who are out there tonight who get to do what you get to do because there are wonderful people who help you at home, I would like to take a moment to thank those people, some of whom are watching your children right now, while you’re at this event. Those are people who love your children as much as you do, and who inspire them and influence them. So on behalf of every sister and mother and person who stands in your kitchen and helps you love your child, I say thank you and I celebrate you tonight.

As Poehler says in the PSA, “it’s time that these workers were treated with dignity and respect.”

Read this online at http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/08/actress_amy_poehler_stars_in_california_domestic_workers_bill_of_rights_psa_video.html

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